Since joining the South Orange Rescue Squad after her junior year at Seton Hall, being an EMT has been a central part of Laura Dubendorfer's life.

"I guess I owe them a lot. They gave me my experience, my fiance," joked Dubendorfer, 24, who lives in Maplewood and is engaged to fellow Rescue Squad member Kurt Gibson.

Next month, Dubendorfer, a recent graduate of Seton Hall's physician assistant program, which is a dual undergraduate and graduate degree, will start a new job as an emergency room PA at Christ Hospital in Jersey City. It's a job she thinks would have been challenging to get if not for her EMT experience, through which she's encountered emergency situations ranging from a man with a piano dropped on his leg (which happened a few weeks ago) to pediatric cardiac arrest.

"A lot of times, it's hard to get a job in ERs as a new graduate," said Dubendorfer, who's originally from upstate New York and initially thought she wanted to work in orthopedics or pediatrics. Her mind was changed when she started volunteering for the Rescue Squad, initially to satisfy a school course requirement.

"I like the adrenaline," said Dubendorfer, whose new job will have her practicing emergency medicine from a new vantage point. As an EMT, "it's a lot of street medicine," which often entails stabilizing a patient with measures likes splinting a broken bone until further treatment is available. Soon she'll be providing that treatment. "It's going to be busy," she observed.

Though Dubendorfer's work schedule won't permit her to volunteer full time for the Rescue Squad, she still intends to put in hours where she can.